In his seminal work A La Recherché du Temps Perdu,
Marcel Proust clings to memory in an effort to grapple with
his own mortality. Late in this hefty tome, Proust writes:
“It is, indeed, alluring, this task of re-creating the true
life and reviving the youthful freshness of our impressions,
but it calls for courage of every sort—even sentimental—for
it means, first of all, giving up our dearest illusions, ceasing
to believe in the objectivity of what we ourselves built up.”

This statement sums up much of the work in the exhibition
Keith Edmier 1991-2007, the most comprehensive show
of the Chicago-born artist’s work to date, on view now at
the Center for Curatorial Studies galleries at Bard College.

The signature piece in this exhibition is the installation
Bremen Towne. In it Edmier pieced together, from photographs,
floor plans, and his memory, a full-scale replica of the main
interior rooms of his childhood home in a Chicago suburb.
Like Proust, Edmier endeavors to examine the curious inner
workings of memory. Bremen Towne captures Edmier’s
home as it would have looked when his family moved into it
in 1971. It represents the earliest influence on his personal
aesthetics. The furnishings are limited to a few key pieces
so that the installation ultimately functions as a portrait
of 1970s Americana.

The 1970s are a tool Edmier uses to conflate his childhood
self with his adult self and explore the intersections between
the personal and pop culture. Two iconic figures of the era,
Evel Knievel and Farrah Fawcett, figure prominently in a number
of works. Since much of Edmier’s work, like Proust, grapples
with memory and mortality, Evel Knievel, having survived numerous
spectacular crashes over the course of his daredevil career,
stands as a perfect emblem for cheating death. In Evel
Knievel (1974, 1996), Edmier photographed the fully costumed
stunt man more than 20 years after his notorious failed attempt
to jump across the Snake River Canyon. Knievel, who prior
to the jump said, “dying is a part of living, and while I’m
alive I’m going to live it to the hilt,” is here writ large
as if still in his heyday. While young boys of the era may
have fantasized about pursuing such manly feats, they were
also fantasizing about the sex symbol Farrah Fawcett, whose
famed swimsuit poster adorned the walls of many a boy’s bedroom.

Edmier actually collaborated with Fawcett, who is also an
artist, on a number of works. Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett
is composed of two life-size nude sculptures, one in bronze
of an idealized Edmier made by Fawcett and the other in marble
of an idealized reclining Fawcett made by Edmier. This work
probes the very nature of artist and muse and considers how
memory and fantasy shift in startling ways. Another piece
that challenges expectations is The Space Between You and
Me. In this close-cropped photograph, Fawcett leans her
forehead against Edmier’s, whose eyes are closed. At first
reading it appears to be an amorous gesture. On closer inspection,
Fawcett’s distraught expression and Edmier’s pale appearance
are more suggestive of Mary cradling a lifeless Jesus.

While Edmier’s celebrity works explore both nostalgia and
pop culture, he also uses figures from his own personal history
to explore similar themes. Beverly Edmier, 1967 is
a life-size sculptural portrait of the artist’s mother gazing
tenderly at her pregnant belly. The fetus, which is visible
inside, is Edmier himself. Edmier has clothed his mother in
a pink suit that resembles the one worn by Jackie Kennedy
on the day of JFK’s assassination. Nearby in the gallery is
another reference to that fateful day, called A Dozen Roses,
that resembles the bouquet carried by the first lady. This
tragic event was one of the defining “where were you” moments
for his parents’ generation, just as the assassination of
John Lennon was for Edmier’s generation. The sculpture Frank
Veteran, 1980 contains a cassette player in a Plexiglas
vitrine that plays an audio recording of the Chief Surgical
Resident at Roosevelt Hospital recalling the events that took
place once Lennon was brought in after being shot. At one
point, Veteran describes the Adidas sneakers he was wearing
and how after the resuscitation effort he noticed Lennon’s
blood on them. These shoes are re-created by Edmier in the
sculpture Morning.

While much of Edmier’s work explores the murky boundaries
between collective and personal memory, he also has made a
body of work that is influenced by the natural world and,
no doubt, by his experience working with special effects.
His artificial plants are another route to exploring mortality
and sexuality. These monumental yet clearly artificial flora
are a counterpart to his figurative icons. The best of them
perfectly blend uncorrupted wonderment with a sense of trepidation.
Victoria Regia (First Night Bloom) and Victoria
Regia (Second Night Bloom) are colossal water plants that
dwarf the viewer. Rather than look down upon delicate and
sentimental lily pads, the viewer sees them from below as
if from a tadpole’s view. Despite their monumental stature,
these plants retain their delicacy and underscore the bittersweet
mood of the exhibition.